As is known in the art, air turbulence can cause an aircraft to shudder dramatically in flight and experience an instantaneous drop in altitude. In such an environment, passengers and the flight crew, who are not buckled into their seats by a safety belt, can be injured by an impact to the ceiling or other cabin structures. Injuries can also be sustained during turbulence by loose items flying around in the cabin, such as food carts, carry on luggage, laptops, cell phones, beverage cans, etc. In view of this, aircraft flight plans and en route modifications attempt to avoid areas of known turbulence.
Areas of potential turbulence may be identified by weather patterns known to cause turbulence. Such weather patterns can be located using weather radars for example. Further, when pilots encounter significant in-flight turbulence they generally report these incidents to air traffic control and/or other aircraft so that this area of turbulence can be avoided. Air traffic controllers can contact aircraft en route and generate flight plans to avoid identified areas. However, such a method is less than precise. In addition, the level of turbulence reported by a pilot is somewhat subjective. That is, for a particular level of turbulence some pilots may report the turbulence while others may not.